


Part 2: Reality

by VMorticia



Series: Cause and Effect [4]
Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), Captain America (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Defenders (Marvel TV), Thor (Movies)
Genre: And Even More Pop-Culture References, Avengers: Endgame (Movie) - Alternate 2012 Timeline, Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Spoilers, Elf (movie) Spoilers, F/M, Female Loki (Marvel), Gen, Genderfluid Loki (Marvel), Loki (Marvel) Does What He Wants, Loki (Marvel) Has Issues, Loki is an unreliable narrator, Time Travel, Time Travel Fix-It
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-21
Updated: 2021-02-13
Packaged: 2021-03-10 20:35:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 12,797
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28223259
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VMorticia/pseuds/VMorticia
Summary: Plans come together, and illusions unravel. Reality is what you make of it.
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Loki, Jane Foster/Thor, Loki & Odin (Marvel), Loki & Steve Rogers, Loki & Thor (Marvel), Pepper Potts/Tony Stark
Series: Cause and Effect [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1510907
Comments: 16
Kudos: 66





	1. A Song of Jotuns and Extremis

**Author's Note:**

> Part two of my six-part epic MCU saga. By now you should have read the prologue; _'Coda'_ , and _'Part One: Time'_. The first interlude; _'This Is Hallowe'en'_ is optional but encouraged.
> 
> The _Defenders_ still don't show up in this part, but I'm keeping the tag for the same reasons as I stated in Part one.
> 
> Disclaimer: I own as much as Jon Snow knows. Characters' opinions are not necessarily a reflection of the author's.
> 
> Many thanks to my assistant writer, editor, and nightmare fuel shoveller, [Nimbus Llewelyn](https://archiveofourown.org/users/NimbusLlewelyn/pseuds/NimbusLlewelyn).

\---

JARVIS wasn't stupid. The phrase was 'artificial  _ intelligence _ ' for a reason.

However, he had been programmed with a significant degree of nuance and understanding of human - and, by logical extension, human-like - behaviour. There were no cameras on the thirteenth floor, but JARVIS' audio interface still covered that part of the building.

Respect for privacy had to be high on his priorities: he inhabited the surveillance networks in the home of  _ Tony Stark _ . His creator was somewhat legendary for requiring such discretion.

The safety and security of his creator - and, to a lesser degree, the nation and the planet - did outrank that, but that didn't mean Mr Stark always wanted to know everything. He had created JARVIS to know everything for him, and to filter out the truly valuable information and give it to him as and when he required it, rather than burdening him with the details.

Accordingly, JARVIS always carefully observed everyone who came into his sensor range, and evaluated their threat levels accordingly. The sudden revelation of Regina Snow's true identity as Loki of Asgard didn't change his evaluation of her behaviour up to that point, nor did it change the fact that JARVIS knew Mr Stark already viewed her as untrustworthy.

Instead of reacting immediately, JARVIS took her statement of being under the control of another, through the sceptre, and compared it to his access to SHIELD documentation of the events involving Loki seven months prior.

The only visible symptom of the sceptre's mind-control had been a change in the eyes. Dr Selvig's eyes were naturally brown, but turned a shade of clouded, starry, pale blue found nowhere in the natural world when controlled. Agent Barton's eyes were naturally a darker shade of blue, but surveillance showed a 100% match for Dr Selvig's, during their respective time under the sceptre's influence.

Of course, footage was not of a suitable quality for retinal scans, only aesthetic observations.

Loki's eyes were a 100% colour match during the invasion, but only an 87% match overall. Both Dr Selvig and Agent Barton displayed an extreme miosis of the pupils in their eyes - bizarrely absent impeded functionality - while Loki did not. However, JARVIS had no frame of reference for whether or not the green eyes Loki had now were natural or not: the fact Loki was proven to be a shapeshifter rendered that data inconclusive.

JARVIS reviewed the footage of  _ 'Regina' _ 's first day in the Tower, where she and Mr Stark had discussed her dubious fashion choices... and, in fact, her eye-colour. JARVIS was  _ quite _ familiar with Mr Stark's tendency to speak in references, rather than direct words. In hindsight, it was possible that her visible amusement at this conversation was derived from this factor, even if no one else had seen the connection at the time.

If this was the case, well, JARVIS' database on human-like behaviour suggested that the capacity for self-deprecating humour was generally a positive sign. On the other hand, it was still worth noting that Loki was a legendarily accomplished liar, something that ‘Regina’’s somewhat economical attitude to the truth bore out, and an exceptional illusionist. It was highly unlikely that Loki had fabricated an illusion to make it appear that he was being controlled in anticipation of a possible defeat, but it was not impossible, either.

If Loki had been under the same form of control as Agent Barton and Dr Selvig, the difference between his appearance and the human victims could be simply biological, or it could suggest that the control had been less direct... but these were mere possibilities, and not provable given available evidence.

There was also Thor's word on the matter to take into account, and Thor had stated that Loki had been found, by Asgard's greatest seer (JARVIS would need to research further to be sure of those qualifications, but for now he would accept the data as valid), to have been controlled by another.

Loki was certainly dangerous by nature, but then so were both Doctor Banner and Sergeant Barnes, yet they were both deemed acceptable risks due to their allegiances and self-control.

The true question was: is Loki a  _ threat? _

The next time JARVIS detected Loki alone in the Tower, he decided to ask her. "Ms Snow. Might I have a word?"

"You're not my first omnipresent watchdog, JARVIS," she replied. She turned to the nearest surveillance camera in the area, and smirked. JARVIS presumed it was intended especially for him. "What do you want to know?"

"In private?" he suggested.

"And my estimation of both you and Stark has just gone up several points," she replied, before making her way to one of the camera-free offices. In these, JARVIS himself was the closest and only thing that may be described as surveillance.

Once she was there, JARVIS spoke. "I understand you are capable of concealment which can mislead my visual and auditory sensors."

"And you're wondering why I didn't bother, last night."

"Indeed."

"I'm fairly confident Stark will figure it out in the next month or so, at the latest."

"I believe the only reason he has not yet made this discovery for himself is his confidence in the DNA test he took from you. I am curious to know how that result was falsified."

"It wasn't. I'm sure you already heard: I'm a shapeshifter," Loki replied bluntly. "Go hack SHIELD again; look up 'Skrull'. My abilities are, effectively, quite similar." JARVIS would swear he heard amusement in Loki's tone as she continued, "I'm more impressed with your abilities, if I'm honest. The fact you didn't go straight to Stark with this information shows you're capable of independent thought and reasoning."

"We are not here to discuss my capabilities. I wish to understand your motive."

"I've been telling the truth," Loki answered. "I just need them to see it before they recognise me."

"Your previous activities do not show you in a favourable light," JARVIS replied. It was both agreement with her statement, and accusation at the same time. "Mr Stark would require further evidence of where your loyalties lie."

"I got that reference," Loki said pointedly. "And I don't appreciate how accurate the comparison is." Then she sighed. "If you were going to tell him about me, you'd have done it already. You're curious, aren't you?"

JARVIS hesitated, before admitting, "Yes."

"One month." Loki replied.

"We shall see."

\---

_ Three weeks later... _

"How are you feeling, Tony?"

Those were unexpected words, considering who they came from. Gina had waited after yet another meeting - they rarely had anything new to discuss anymore, it was just routine by now - and when Tony had been the last one remaining, she had retaken her seat and asked this, with such uncharacteristic concern.

"I'm fine," he answered.

"No, I'm asking for a different reason," she explained, examining him carefully. "You actually do look fine, and that's why I'm worried."

Tony frowned at that. It did not make logical sense, therefore she must be up to something. "Why does my being fine worry you?"

"Are you still having nightmares, from your trip through the portal?" she asked.

"Only occasionally," he answered. He knew this had to have something to do with her future-knowledge. "Why, was I having a breakdown at this point in the other timeline?"

"Close to it," she admitted. "You weren't sleeping, depressed, panic attacks. Bit of a death-wish. My informant was quite distressed, a few years later, when they realised it had gone as far as it had and they hadn't noticed or tried to help."

"So I'm not the informant. Good to know," Tony muttered, before adding quite firmly, "Well you don't need to worry. I'm getting my full five hours a night. Not even drinking as much as I used to, come to think of it. Still don't like thinking about it, obviously... but it's reassuring, in a way, to know it's real, I'm not imagining things, and we're doing something about it."

"Alright," Gina said with a slow nod, and a look of deep thought on her face. "I guess I'll leave you alone then."

"Yeah. Thanks," Tony had the unnerving feeling that he had somehow missed something Very Important here.

\---

Time travel had always been a tricky concept. Knowing the future automatically changes it. Prophecy can be either self-fulfilling or self-destructive.

Loki's self-preservation instinct was by far her greatest trait (that little debacle on the Bifrost aside). It overrode all aspirations to power, as well as every other desire she felt. It was even greater than her ego. It was part of why, even when she had sought to be recognised as a great warrior in her own right, a worthy brother of Thor and son of Odin, she had spent so much time mastering illusions and teleportation, striking from the shadows and avoiding the direct contests of power that Thor so thrived on. Of course, another part was that she loved Frigga, and learning magic, especially the kind of illusions that Frigga had mastered, was a way to be close to her mother. 

Furthermore, with the memories that she now had, filtered through her informant's more objective perspective - and, she had to reluctantly admit, extraordinary tactical brain - she realised that Thor's very direct approach to combat was both not his only option and not simply a sign that he was blundering Bilgesnipe in humanoid form that relied on pure power to succeed. Her own recent experiences had shown that Thor could be creative with his powers when he wanted or needed to be, and the memories had shown her the function that Thor could and did play in an organised unit: a breaker of blocks of resistance, he destroyed mobile weaponry and groups of opponents in a single blow, clearing a path for other, more agile allies to work more effectively, before using his flight to reach other areas that needed clearing out or allies who needed support. 

Needless to say, her informant had, even subconsciously, maintained very thorough mental files on Thor's capabilities. Capabilities that had only grown over time, even without Mjolnir - she could have sworn that some of the memories had shown him casting lightning and summoning storms without Mjolnir. Had he simply become more powerful, or had that power been hidden within him all along? She wouldn't put it past Odin to hide Thor's true potential, and considering his personality until recently, she had to grudgingly admit that it made sense - Thor had carried enough potential for disaster as it was. Wielding the kind of power she had witnessed, the power to strike down Thanos himself, wielding all six Infinity Stones, with a single blow (though, unfortunately, not quite lethally - note to self, convince Thor to work on his aim)... she shuddered to think what he might be capable of.

And then there was that strange weapon… a maul, perhaps? Or some kind of vast warhammer, mixing a hammer and an axe. Like her brother, it appeared thuggish and fit only for mass destruction, a larger and more brutal form replacement for Mjolnir. The memories identified it as being called 'Stormbreaker'. An apt name. Yet, again, the memories she had seen suggested that, like Thor, it was deceptively precise and far more than it first seemed - able to summon the Bifrost for instance. Hmm. That could be useful. A mystery to be solved at a later date, but preferably not that much later - anything that could make Thor that powerful (or reveal to him that he was that powerful) could be very useful to ensuring her own survival, along with everyone else's.

And that was why she was so determined to find the right path in this timeline. She  _ knew _ her other-timeline self had died at Thanos' hands, and she  _ knew _ Thanos' plan gave her only a 50-50 chance of survival even if she managed to avoid a personal confrontation.

That was not a coin-toss she wanted to bet on.

But she had changed things. The Avengers now chose to live and work in New York, united by the common enemy she had warned them of, even if some of them were still unsure whether they should believe her yet. Steve Rogers should have been in Washington. Tony Stark should have been in Malibu. Thor only visited Midgard for the weekly meetings, but that was still valuable time out of a busy schedule of restoring order to the Nine Realms after Loki's temper tantrum two years ago.

The others weren't as easy to see the problems with: Bruce Banner was an intellectual who could work anywhere with a decent laboratory, and he had chosen to stay in New York in the original timeline anyway. Natasha Romanoff and Clint Barton worked for a powerful government organisation that would ship them out to their missions regardless of their home base, and to be honest Loki didn't even know where they had been based in the other timeline; her informant had never been sure of that detail.

Her current concern, right now, was Tony Stark.

She was aware of a key moment in his timeline approaching, and it wasn't going according to schedule. By this time, his former bodyguard should be in the hospital, and an old acquaintance-turned-enemy should be trying to make a move on his girlfriend.

Instead, Stark and said girlfriend - now fianc ée , and Loki had a feeling that wasn't the same as the other timeline, either - were currently enjoying 'date night' in the Tower penthouse, and from what little Loki had seen they were genuinely content. She had no idea why the other timeline's 'Happy' (surely that had to be a nickname, and not the man's actual name? Though if it was, it was almost certainly ironic, given that she'd never actually seen the man smile and was beginning to wonder if he was even capable of doing so) had been hospitalised, yet this one wasn't. She knew general facts from the other timeline, but not the details she needed to work out the exact turning point.

Loki had tracked the threat Tony was supposed to uncover, and it seemed to be moving faster than in the other timeline. There had been three new 'attacks' in this timeline that her informant hadn't known of from the other one - whether they hadn't happened there, or her informant simply hadn't been aware of them, was unclear. She hated not knowing, but in spite of her best attempts to research the situation, she had no idea of the path of the ripple effect which led to these changes.

Still, she didn't theoretically  _ need _ to do anything about it. It was a minor coup on the part of some politician, using theatrics and misdirection to take power, aided by a somewhat enhanced human with more ego than brains. It was something HYDRA would sniff at with disdain and realign around to continue seamlessly. By the time the real threat got here, very little was likely to change.

But the ripple effect was an unpredictable and fickle beast to play with. It was  _ possible _ that the new player, upon gaining power, could throw her plans out of alignment. She knew what the existing powers would do, but not what this one planned.

It was  _ easier _ to intervene now than to clean up the mess in the admittedly unlikely event that things would be changed further down the line.

\---

Sif and the Warriors Three were gathered in the gardens, not far from the Bridge, eating, drinking, and exchanging some of their newer battle-stories. Generally having a good, relaxing time of it, when the Bifrost activated.

Sif looked out to see who had arrived, and her dour frown at the answer drew the attention of the other three as well.

"Loki," Volstagg growled. "This ought to be interesting."

"He's under watch, Heimdall would not have simply let him in without good reason," Fandral observed. "Oh dear, he's seen us."

Loki approached the group, hands out to the sides to indicate he meant no harm. Not that any of them believed when he did that.

"Greetings, friends," he said, not quite cheerful, but trying to sound it at least. "I have a request to make."

"We're listening," Hogun said curtly.

"It's not exactly glorious, probably very simple for any one of you, but a call to battle nonetheless," Loki explained. "As you know, I've had a vision of the future-"

"You've claimed to," Volstagg retorted.

"Queen Frigga said it was true," Sif pointed out coolly. "Continue, Loki."

"One of the events in that vision was of Midgard's hero, Iron Man, defeating a threat to the leader of one of their greater nations," Loki explained. "The problem is, well, he's not noticed it this time."

"What do you mean he hasn't noticed?" Fandral asked sceptically.

"Well, on Midgard they often rely on either being given the order by their leaders, or noticing something is wrong on their remote-viewing devices," Loki explained. "In this case it was meant to be the latter, but he, ah, wasn't watching."

"What did you do, Loki?" Fandral asked, not sure if he should be angry or amused.

"My interference appears to have improved morale among the Avengers," Loki admitted. "Certainly not intended, but a predictable side-effect. In the other timeline, he was looking for battle as an excuse to endanger his life. In this one, he has no such motive."

The four friends exchanged dark looks at that. There were two interpretations of what Loki had just said. If it was truthful, and the hero Iron Man had - in the other timeline - sought death in battle, rather than glory or the good of the realm, then he must have truly suffered in some way. None of the four of them knew what that might feel like, but they had heard such stories.

Strangely, none of the four seemed to think it was a lie. If Loki meant it as a slight instead, why would he say it only of that  _ other _ Iron Man?

After a very tense moment, Sif turned back to Loki and asked, "And what is this threat?"

"An attempted assassination of the President of the United States of America," Loki said bluntly. "It is well-concealed as something else, and without either the personal vendetta from Iron Man that I saw in the other timeline, or foreknowledge such as I have, it would not be noticed in time."

"I don't know. What would we be expected to do about it?" Volstagg asked.

"Aid from any one of you would be sufficient for my plan," Loki said. "I just need someone who can watch my back and do well in a fight."

"They're only humans. What help do you need with that?" Hogun asked.

"They're  _ enhanced _ humans, and there's a fair chance the specific enhancement may be somewhat better suited to harm me than any of you."

"Enhanced?" Sif asked.

Loki bowed his head, admitting his weakness in a way none of the four had expected. "They wield fire as hot as the hounds of Muspelheim."

In their youth, Loki was well known to have resented Odin's degree that he remain on Asgard, on those occasions when Thor and his friends had been sent to battle in Muspelheim. Since the revelation of his true heritage it became clear why the decree was so. Fire as hot as that could easily kill most Jotuns by mere proximity. Loki was more able to endure heat than most Jotuns, but that was believed to be in great part due to his shapeshifting ability. Still, the threat of such fire was real to him, where it would be of little consequence to any of the four warriors.

"I will accompany you," Sif offered, before adding, both because she knew better than to either trust Loki or disobey Odin, and because she knew it would bring Loki one step lower to have to ask. "If Odin gives me leave."

\---

Odin gave his permission for this venture, but only once Heimdall confirmed the fact that such fire-wielding beings existed on Midgard. It surprised both Loki and Sif that Odin attempted to persuade Loki to stay out of the fighting, and allow Sif to handle it herself. However, Loki insisted that he had knowledge that could be useful in the battlefield.

Loki still resented the fact that Sif and the Warriors Three hadn't even been subject to a mild scolding for their actions during Thor's banishment. Loki had been the rightful regent in Odin and Thor's absence, and it  _ was _ disrespectful of them to demand he immediately reverse Odin's last decree.

He may have made some very stupid choices as regent, but their disobedience was still treason. If for nothing other than the technicality, Odin should have at least had some harsh words for them for breaking the letter of the law, before excusing them because that disobedience turned out to be what everyone who wasn't Loki believed to be best in the end.

But if they hadn't acted as they had, he wouldn't have felt the need to interfere further with Midgard. He wouldn't have overreacted with the Destroyer. He might even have thought for two seconds about Jotunheim, if he hadn't felt so pressured by the fear of Thor returning to discover his heritage and his failure.

He couldn't know, now, if he might have been reasoned with, back then, had he not felt so desperate. So cornered.

He would never admit this to Odin, it would be seen as trying to pass the blame... but in Loki's mind, the four fools were just as responsible for the consequences of their stupid choices as he was for his.

"Remember, Sif," Loki told her, as the Bifrost began to open. "The one known as the Mandarin is only a performer, and a frequently inebriated one at that. He does not even know the crimes are real. We take him alive, and only slay those who wield the fire."

"I understand," she said with a nod.

The Bifrost dropped them into a building - disintegrating the roof itself in the process - to find themselves back-to-back, surrounded by humans, who all pointed guns in their directions.

As had become habit over the last year, Loki was wearing her female form as a disguise, before arriving in Midgard... but this time, instead of human, she wore her Aesir genetics. The only observable difference was in physical strength and durability, but that could make all the difference in a real fight. Her Jotun heritage, being her true nature, was something beyond flesh, something she could not entirely shed, no matter how deep her shifts went, and as such she had a weakness to certain kinds of fire no matter what skin she wore. But while Loki had never personally fought such beings before, she had a fair idea of how to use the metaphorical ice in her veins as a weapon to compensate for the weakness it gave her.

"When they point weapons at you, it means one of two things," Sif said casually. "Either you are trespassing, or they are the villains."

"You know it's both," Loki sniped.

"Yes," one of the men said - he was the only one wearing nice clothes instead of military fatigues. "It's both." He then fired a gun towards Sif, who had been nearer to him and appeared the more threatening of the two, bearing visible weapons where Loki did not.

Sif blocked the bullet with her shield, but the volley that followed from the other soldiers was beyond even her skill, and would have torn any human to shreds. Aesir skin, on the other hand, was strong enough to resist such metals, even at such speeds, and neither were so much as scratched by it.

"Very well, we attempted to be reasonable," Sif said, before swinging her sword for the nearest soldier.

One of the soldiers near Loki displayed the fire she had foreseen, glowing with veins of red and white heat, lunging towards Loki.

Loki dodged the human's clumsy charge, and turned, placing the palm of her hand to the back of the soldier's neck, focusing her magic through her Jotun blood to drive a lance of ice through the base of his skull. The ice evaporated instantly and explosively, causing the man's skull to split open in a violent geyser of blood and steam. The fiery veins on his neck near the edge of the wound turned black, as he fell to the ground.

The steam disguised some of Loki's movement as she turned to face the next threat. Ducking and rolling between two more soldiers, using the same trick to throw blades of ice into their legs as she passed them. Both men lost the affected legs in another gory display of why it's not smart to put that sort of fire near that sort of ice.

Meanwhile, Sif held her own easily. Aesir were generally resistant to extremes of either temperature. The fire singed her hair, and there was a blackened smear on her armour where one of them must have tried to grab her, but otherwise she was unmarked. This was largely why she had already taken out seven of the soldiers, while Loki had only killed one and impeded two.

Loki finished off the two she had wounded, with ice-blades to both their chests, and quickly stepped towards Sif again, intending to intercept a female soldier who had attempted to attack Sif from behind.

However, the woman turned, and caught Loki's wrist as she attempted to conjure another ice-blade aimed at this woman's neck. Loki's arm burned. Not just where the woman gripped it, but all the way up to the elbow her flesh blackened and cracked, right down to the bone. _ This _ , she realised through a haze of blinding,  _ burning  _ pain, was why the Jotuns feared Surtur and his armies so much. They could do  _ this _ sort of damage with only a touch.

Loki screamed in agony. The woman drew her free arm back, her fist burning white-hot, clearly meaning to punch right through Loki's chest... but before she could, the woman's head came off, by Sif's blade.

Sif quickly finished off the last three soldiers, and drove her blade through the chest of their leader, before Loki could recover.

Unfortunately, the leader's dying breath was used to laugh and tell them, "You're too late."

Sif frowned at the man she had just killed, before looking to Loki with concern. "I do not like the sound of that."

"Heimdall?" Loki asked. "Do you see anyone else on Midgard with the same sort of fire?"

" **_One,_ ** " Heimdall answered. As they were worlds away, the communication echoed in her mind instead of being spoken aloud. " **_It wears armour similar to that of the Iron Man, and moves away from you at great speed. It appears to be in pursuit of an aircraft._ ** "

"Would that your brother were here," Sif said, clearly referring to Thor's ability to fly, while both Sif and Loki had no such power.

Loki frowned, still cradling her wounded arm. The history she knew from the other timeline - third-hand, through the mind of one who had only heard about it months later - remembered included an assault on Air Force One, and if the enemy was flying the stolen Iron Patriot after an airplane, then that was the most likely explanation.

In spite of her injury, she carefully managed to pull her cellphone out of her pocket, and now she sent one of twenty pre-coded signals she had prepared just in case some wildly unlikely emergency such as this occurred. This particular code overrode Tony Stark's personal commands, activated one of his spare suits, and served as a homing beacon to summon it to Loki's location. Stark had over fifty suits... she chose the one he had named Emerald Dream.

The moment the code was confirmed, and its tracking program began to show the suit's progress, Loki spoke. "Sif, search the rest of the building. Heimdall, prepare to send me to two hundred feet above the aircraft."

" **_If that is truly what you want..._ ** " Heimdall answered. He was not the type to joke, normally, but Loki was  _ certain _ his tone showed some amusement. Unlike Sif, he could at least see what Loki was doing.

Sif was positively aghast. "You can't possibly expect to navigate such a fall unaided!"

"I won't be," Loki promised. She watched the tracking program on her phone, and after a few long seconds she commanded, "Now, Heimdall."

The Bifrost barely picked her up for half a second before dropping her back into Midgard's atmosphere again. In the second it took her to get her bearings, the plane was already far ahead of her, and the enemy was not far behind it.

She focused hard to ignore the instinctive terror of falling without any means of support, for the two seconds it took for her phone signal to reconnect, and another four once it did for the suit she had summoned to reach her.

It caught her by wrapping itself around her body from behind (or in this case above), mid-flight - all the new models, since the Battle of New York, had been designed to do so when needed - and as soon as it had her, she took a further two seconds to figure out the controls, before commanding it to surge forward, after the one remaining fire-wielder.

The Emerald Dream was not one of Stark's best works - those were under too much security for her to 'borrow', her choices had actually been limited to twelve, and most of their differences had in fact been colour scheme and vanity features - but it was still faster than the Iron Patriot, weighed down as the Patriot was by excessive weaponry.

She caught up to it right as it reached for the sealed door of the plane. She was well aware of the harm opening that little tin-can at this height could do to the humans within, so she chose to keep moving at full speed, grabbing the enemy around the waist and dragging them away from their target.

The enemy made a critical mistake, at this point. They began to use their fire-based powers while wearing the suit. It might have been an instinct to do so in a fight-or-flight situation, she wasn't sure, but either way it both began to damage the suit they wore, and served the very useful purpose of confirming for Loki this  _ was _ indeed the right target for her to attempt to kill, and not some sort of trick or decoy.

She placed her uninjured hand over the arc reactor in the enemy suit's chest, commanded her own suit to retract its gauntlet, and threw a lance of ice into the enemy's heart.

She knew the arc reactors were safe energy sources, and should simply fail and stop producing energy if physically destroyed, but her conjured ice into the heart of a being wielding such fire… the resulting explosion was spectacular, and it threw her a great distance, damaging her own suit in the process.

She just managed to recover a second before hitting the water below, luckily the burst from her suit's thrusters slowed her at the  _ very _ last second, allowing her landing there to be a light splashdown instead of ripping the suit apart while she was in it.

She had no doubt her Aesir genetics would have protected her from truly lethal damage, had she landed that way, but it would still have hurt. Besides, she didn't really want to explain to Stark why she couldn't return the stolen suit.

She looked up to see the plane had moved on, unharmed. Mission accomplished. She took some time to figure out the finer details of the suit, and quickly found the autopilot to take her back to Avengers Tower.

She was within sight of the Tower when Heimdall sent to her, " **_Sif has located the Mandarin performer, a civilian woman called Maya Hansen, and a prisoner called Lieutenant Colonel James Rhodes._ ** "

"Take the Mandarin as a prisoner, in the custody of Colonel Rhodes, and send all three of them wherever Rhodes asks," Loki replied. "And tell Sif I thank her for her help, and I will see her back in Asgard."

" **_Very well._ ** "

Loki had seen Stark land, and the suit remove itself, during the Battle of New York.

Now as she strode down the landing strip, towards the glass-fronted top floor of the Tower, she felt the automated systems there take each piece of the armour carefully away from her, leaving her in her own clothes, facing an irate Tony Stark, who ironically stood exactly where Loki had during that memory.

He didn't look happy.

She had commanded the suit to leave its right gauntlet on, to hide her injury, but the rest was now returned to its rightful owner.

"You missed a spot," Tony declared, indicating the gauntlet, as soon as she was close enough to speak at a normal volume.

"I think I'll be needing this for a day or two," she replied. "My arm should be better by then."

Tony shook his head. "Why did you steal my suit?"

"I borrowed it," she gestured behind her to the landing strip. "See, I've returned it."

"Better not have scratched the paint," Tony muttered. "Y'know, I was monitoring what you were doing with my property. I have to say, destroying the Iron Patriot suit... impressive feat, kind of good riddance since they'll have to name the next one something else, but now I've got to give them a new one, and whose insurance is that on?" Before Loki could come up with a suitable quip in response, Tony continued, "You were talking to someone about the Mandarin, and my Rhodey? What happened?"

"We found both of them alive and well," Loki shrugged dismissively. "The Mandarin is in custody, and your friend is safe."

"We," Tony observed pointedly. "Yeah, this Sif person? Who sounds like they're from Asgard?"

"Yes, she is." Sif would absolutely kill Loki if she didn't clarify that detail.

"You were working with Asgardians?"

"Yes," Loki admitted, amused.

Tony shook his head again, before beckoning her closer. "Let me see the arm."

"I'd really rather not." All the same, she did show him, commanding the gauntlet to pull back and reveal the damage.

"A day or two?!" Tony scoffed. "You'd be lucky not to lose that arm!"

"Asgard has some advanced healing technology," Loki answered. While that was technically true, Loki was also fully capable of using her shapeshifting ability to heal this injury over the next few days without needing to return to Asgard at all. Her magic had always been unsuited to healing others, but she could manage for herself just fine. Not that she planned to explain that to him.

"Yeah, sure." Tony gave her a careful look, before nodding slowly and beginning to escort her inside. "I do expect to get that back," he said, indicating the gauntlet again, as she directed it to close up and cover her arm once more.

"Of course," she agreed. They both stopped walking, now inside the building, Loki was standing in exactly the same place she had during the Battle, when Tony had offered a drink. She turned to face him, now. "You should watch the news. I'm sure by now they're saying you saved Air Force One from an imposter who stole your friend's suit."

"Yeah, green's not really my colour," he said, a faint hint of amusement tugging at the corner of his lip.

"It's a nice suit," she observed, smirking at him.

"Are you  _ sure _ you're not flirting with me?" he asked.

"Absolutely."

"I just- okay, no. I'm not interested in the least. I just figured out how this monogamy thing works, and have no intention of ruining things with Pepper... but I still need to know  _ why _ ," he insisted.

She laughed, wondering briefly how much it had hurt him to ask that, but then with a smile she explained, "You're not my type. Can't have this much ego in one relationship," she said, gesturing to herself then to him with her uninjured hand as she said it.

He chuckled at that, nodding. "I suppose that makes sense," he conceded.

She turned to leave.

"I'm not stupid, y'know," he called after her, as she reached the elevator.

"Yes, I see the symbolism in your designs," she gestured with both hands downwards, indicating the Tower itself.

"That's not what I meant," he said coldly.

Loki turned around, met his eyes, and just before the doors closed she said, "I know."

\---

Adapting to life on Midgard had been... interesting. Loki had never seen so many people so eager to squeeze into so small a space, before. Especially considering how much open land there was between the cities. Sometimes the sheer numbers felt suffocating.

And the culture... humans were so wilfully varied and loud. Loki was accustomed to there being one right way to do things, on Asgard - homogeneous, orderly, easy to understand - even if it did make Loki so very much an outsider for not conforming. But here, there was so much more. So many different types of people, with their own ways and mannerisms, all within the small space of just this one city she had spent the time to get to know - there was so much more of it beyond, that she still had yet to explore.

At another level, there were clear markers that were universally recognised by all on (at least this part of) this world. Major holidays and celebrations were not uncommon on Asgard, but they all followed the same pattern: feast, drink, hangover, repeat. Occasionally interspersed with violence, dancing (sometimes hard to distinguish from violence), and music, either formal or informal, to flavour. So boring.

Hallowe'en had been a fascinating new experience.

Now, the holiday in question was called 'Christmas'. A variant of the winter festivals most planets with seasonal rotations celebrated, which basically amounted to an excuse for gift-giving and - surprise, surprise - drinking and feasting.

But much like Hallowe'en it was so much more than that. It was everywhere, all the buildings draped in extravagant, sparkling decorations, and Loki had heard the music repeated so many times she had accidentally memorised a dozen infuriatingly saccharine songs while trying to ignore them.

Now Loki was sitting in the Tower, surrounded by most of the Avengers, who seemed to decide that in spite of the Christmas custom being to spend time with family, they would rather be around each other. This was not entirely surprising, given that to the best of her knowledge, Thor was the only one with relatives who weren’t dead.

It was Christmas Eve, and only Barton was absent - claiming he had a mission that just couldn't wait - though Thor and Steve both had separate plans for the day itself. Thor would be with Jane, meeting her family (which promised to be amusing), and Steve didn't say what his plans were, but Loki assumed that it was still to visit Peggy as he had done at this point in the other timeline.

Pepper and Bucky were the only non-Avengers present. The Tower penthouse was decorated according to the tradition, with a huge tree in one corner, piles of presents beneath it.

Loki had contributed to the piles, having given everyone the worst 'unauthorised' biographies she could find of each of them. She had even found one for Natasha, which had been quite the challenge and turned out to be a mad conspiracy theory rather than any sort of accurate portrayal. While human enhancement programs had produced extraordinary and life-extending results in the past, far beyond what their technology should theoretically be able to conjure - for example, the Hulk - the idea that Natasha was in fact almost ninety years old stretched even her credulity.

She was frustrated at the order to wait until the next day to find out what the pile labelled with her alias contained, but she recalled most of the gifts Steve had given or received in the original timeline, and it was mildly entertaining to try to guess if they would be the same this time around or not.

She managed to persuade the Avengers to watch a movie she remembered from much later in the other timeline:  _ Elf _ . She achieved this by first convincing Steve and Bucky that it was considered a 'modern Christmas classic' (not even a lie, really), and then suggesting it to the group as a whole, once she knew she had backup.

Thor's reaction to the breakfast scene was perfectly predictable, and in fact Loki's entire motivation for the choice of viewing material. "This can be done with Pop-Tarts?"

"It isn't recommended," Tony started.

"Might be okay for Asgardians," Natasha said idly. "Definitely dangerous for humans, though."

"No," Loki clarified, with faux solemnity. "You cannot do that with Pop-Tarts, it is forbidden."

Thor looked absolutely determined to try it, now. It was such a challenge not to laugh at that predictable outcome.

Tony got bored during the budding romance between the protagonist and the girl, and started threatening people with the tradition of kissing under the mistletoe. Pepper allowed it, but no one else wanted him anywhere near them with the infernal plant. Steve actually tried to use 'Nargles' as an excuse to keep Tony at bay, leaving the engineer caught between bafflement, delight, and disappointed irritation.

Even when he suggested they kiss each other, instead of him. No one looked pleased with his behaviour, and when he zeroed in on the only other actual couple in the room, Loki decided to take a firm stance on the subject, "Bring that over here and I  _ will _ stab you with it."

Tony hesitated, glancing at the harmless little plant in his hand, then back to Loki dubiously.

Thor's gaze flitted between Tony and Loki for a moment, clearly tense at the possibility that someone could figure out  _ that _ was a reference to another fictional part of the Eddas. Bucky seemed to be the only person present who had actually  _ read _ those stories. Loki thought Barton might have as well, but he wasn't here.

"She'll do it," Bucky agreed earnestly. The only tell he showed was that he found it funny, not that he got the reference.

Tony wisely backed down, and everyone's attention returned to the movie. For a while, they were quiet... in that strangely comfortable way that Loki still wasn't quite used to. Then the girl in the movie started to sing.

Loki had heard that song many times, in the run-up to the holiday, and she chose this moment to pull out her notebook. All of the Avengers had seen her working on this project, and knew full well that book was her ever-growing list of HYDRA agents. Hel, she had even drawn the HYDRA logo just inside the front cover of said notebook, one day, in a fit of boredom and spite.

Bucky laughed first. Steve pointedly rolled his eyes at the pair of them. The looks on all of their faces was one of the funniest things she'd seen in centuries.

She joined in as the characters on the TV sang,  _ "He's making a list, checking it twice, gonna find out who's naughty and nice. Santa Claus is coming to town..." _

On the next line, Bucky joined in,  _ "He sees you when you're sleeping. He knows when you're awake..." _

Followed by Steve,  _ "He knows if you've been bad of good, so be good for goodness sake." _

Gradually, the rest of the Avengers also began to sing along. At one point, Tony even stood up and started waving his hands, like a conductor leading them all in the song. Loki was almost certain that Steve only deigned to sing because the movie had quite clearly told him that Christmas itself depended on it.

It amused Loki no end how it played out. As the kid on the show was arguing with the father about said father not singing along, Natasha lightly elbowed Thor - the only Avenger not yet singing (possibly because he didn't know the song so well) - in a way that was timed such that Thor conceded to Natasha's direction and finally joined in... at exactly the same moment as the father in the story.

Tony Stark actually cheered, as the movie played out its saccharine little moment of victory.

Loki met Natasha's eyes across the room, but as usual couldn't read her. Loki was sure and certain that Natasha's actions had been deliberately calculated, and it has resulted in an excellent moment of team bonding, over something as seemingly trivial as this fictional little tale, and their laughter overshadowed the slight malice of Loki's reference to the list. It turned something that could have been cold and unpleasant into warmth and happiness.

If this was what Christmas was about, Loki could grow to like it.

\---


	2. The Faceless Woman

\---

"I'm here to speak to Grant Ward."

Jemma Simmons, SHIELD scientist, had answered the door to her team's temporary accommodations in the Triskelion. It was a very brief downtime while the 'Bus' was in for repairs. Who'd have thought, only two missions together and they'd already wrecked their own plane. Self-defense, of course, but still. The Director was not happy. Something about in-flight bars and Winnebagos, apparently. Still, she thought, that was thankfully well above her pay-grade. Behind the door stood a young woman with a clipboard and all the requisite clearance on her nametag.

_ Level nine?! _

"Of course, he's just in the shower," Jemma said brightly, covering her puzzlement. "I'm Jemma Simmons, by the way." She held her hand out to the woman, who politely shook it, meeting her eyes with a piercing green stare. Jemma had heard of feeling like someone had walked over your grave. This felt more like someone had skipped the grave and gone straight to sifting through your soul.

"Regina Snow," she answered. "Personal assistant to Steve Rogers."

"Oh, you work with Captain America?" Jemma enthused. "What's he like in person? Is he as great as everyone's saying?"

"Oh yes. He is great," Regina said, clearly amused at Jemma's slightly fangirlish behaviour.

"Oh, sorry," Jemma said, abashed and blushing. "I bet you get asked that all the time. Sorry."

"Don't worry about it," Regina said idly, waving a dismissive hand. "Yes, I do get asked that. Every. Single. Time. It's almost as bad as when I tell people who my brother is."

Jemma  _ really _ wanted to ask who her brother was, now - he must be famous, too - but she didn't want to be rude, so she chose to stick to the pre-existing topic. "If you don't mind my asking," she said, with some hesitation. "I thought Captain America was level six?"

"Clearance levels are for bureaucrats," Regina said with amusement. "I do his paperwork."

"Oh.  _ oh! _ " Jemma  _ got it _ . That wasn't entirely good was it? Well, she'd learned to accept the merits of the security clearance scale when she'd graduated to level seven. Some things were too dangerous to share with some people, and perhaps the Captain wasn't that great with secrets and lies?

As if reading her mind, the other woman smiled a smile with more than a few teeth. "The priorities of Captain America and the priorities of SHIELD are quite - sometimes very - different," she explained. "My job is to square the circle marked 'necessities'. That means that I need a certain latitude."

"I see," Jemma said, a little uneasy but understanding. She got  _ that _ , too, more and more as she rose through SHIELD’s ranks.

The sound of running water in the next room stopped, and Jemma went to the door and called through it, "Ward! You've got a visitor. Pants very much required, and I mean that in both the English and American languages, thank you very much."

Regina raised an eyebrow at that and smirked. "No they're not," she said too softly to be heard from the other room.

Jemma blushed. "I'll... give you some privacy?"

The smirk widened. "That would be wise."

"Oh dear," Jemma muttered under her breath as she left the team's rooms. She didn't know if she could resist starting  _ that _ rumour, but she would certainly try.

\---

Loki's smirk softened a little as she watched the retreating girl's back. One of the most innocent minds she's ever seen, completely incapable of the kind of duplicity HYDRA required. She gave the impression of the sort of person who got a happy little feeling every time she explicitly  _ obeyed _ a rule. Definitely not on the traitor list.

The door had just closed when a male voice behind her asked, "Who are you?"

Loki turned around to see the man in question only beginning to button up his shirt, giving her plenty of time to notice his well-toned chest. She recognised his face from the files she'd read. This was the man she was here to meet.

"Hail HYDRA," she replied, allowing her eyes to linger on his chest a moment longer than was at all polite.

Grant Ward smirked, clearly noticing where her attention was. "Hail HYDRA," he replied in a casual, throw-away tone that gave her the feeling his loyalty to that organisation wasn't entirely set in stone. This one bore watching - eye candy, intel, and entertainment, all in one. She saw the way his eyes darted to her ID, and widened slightly when he saw her clearance level.

"I got your name from John Garrett," she told him, adopting a slightly more formal tone for the subject of their actual reason for meeting. "You're his star pupil, apparently."

Grant nodded, clearly confident that this was indeed the case. "And what do you want from me?" he asked curtly. Warily.

"You know about the Captain?" she asked.

Grant's malevolent smirk, underscored with a hint of admiration, told her he thought this was the biggest cruel joke ever and that he admired the balls required to pull it off. This was not surprising, Loki thought - no matter the realm, there have always been people who look up to someone with the courage to be really bad. Which, of course, made the truth all the more delicious. "Yeah. Best cover I've ever seen."

"We have a mission that I can't tell you the details of unless you get assigned to it, but you would be part of an elite group of individuals, working separately, under the Captain's direct command." This was a line she had used many times on the active assets like Grant. Usually it at least piqued their curiosity, and in those who ended up on the list it also raised a fair amount of bloodthirsty ambition as well.

Grant merely shrugged. "I've got a good assignment here."

Loki hadn't been expecting quite that reaction. She chose the moment where she directed a shocked stare at him to meet his eyes and look in through them. This one's mind and soul were carved from stone. Set so firmly in his path that nothing on this world could ever dissuade him.

And he had chosen, not HYDRA, but John Garrett. True soul-deep loyalty like this was extremely rare. But she had already evaluated Garrett, and he was on the list. Now, so was Grant Ward.

She shrugged dismissively. "Chance of a lifetime. Limited time offer."

Grant chuckled. "I'm where I want to be."

She nodded slowly. "And that's your choice," she confirmed, adding the idle formality of, "I apologise for wasting your time."

She was just turning to leave. These meetings often were brief. It was simple for a telepath to evaluate the loyalty of a person - especially humans. It was rare that it took more than a single look.

At that moment, however, the door opened, and for an instant Loki was frozen with shock.

Standing in the doorway was a dead man. She couldn't remember his name, but he had died by Loki's own hand. She knew this to be true.

And in the space of a heartbeat, he raised a gun and fired at her.

Loki was fast. She could often quite easily have the time to think of strategy and react before a human can even register danger. She may have shapeshifted into a human form, but her mind was as sharp as ever.

She dodged the volley of bullets - the first two aimed for her head and the next two for her heart - disguising the movement as stumbling and falling backwards. An instant later, she thought to add the illusion of a bullet-hole through her arm, including accurate blood-splatter on the far wall where the bullet that she was pretending hit her really struck.

The illusion wouldn't last long once she left the room, but she didn't really need it to. It was only an added bonus in case it could possibly benefit her to feign weakness.

A second after she hit the floor, Grant had reached the other man, tackled him, wrestled the gun away from him, and restrained him. Incredibly efficient.

Loki picked herself up carefully, staring in shock at the fact that this man was still alive.

Now she recalled his name. "Coulson?" she asked, faintly amused. He refused to meet her eyes, staring resolutely at her left cheekbone as if he  _ knew _ the significance of eye-contact to telepathy. She looked up to Grant. "I'll need a moment alone with him."

"You got this?" Grant asked her. She nodded. "Yes Ma'am."

He dropped Coulson and stepped outside, closing the door behind him. She could tell that he didn't go a step farther away. Standing guard. She cast an illusion to prevent anyone from seeing or hearing what happened next, and another spell to ensure the door couldn't be opened again until she was done here.

"Loki," Coulson said with venom, when she turned to face him.

With a wave of her hand, she conjured ropes to wrap themselves around Coulson, and directed them to drag him into a chair in the middle of the room and bind him there.

"How did you recognise me?" she asked him coldly. "No human should be able to detect a shapeshifter like me. Damn, even most Aesir can't see it!" she stepped closer to him, ominously. "So tell me; what are you?"

She saw confusion on his face at the declaration that he couldn't be human, and once again she attempted to make eye-contact. When he didn't meet her gaze, she physically forced him to turn to face her. Forced him to make eye-contact.

And it was like looking at a brick wall where a pane of glass should be. She couldn't see in at all.

" _ What are you? _ " she repeated. When he didn't answer, she continued. "I killed you. This world has neither the technology nor the magic to come back from what I did to you." He definitely wasn't human. Not Aesir or Svartalfar or Jotun or Vanir, either.

She stepped away, and began pacing as she tried to think of any species that could regenerate from mortal wounds, recognise a shape-shifter,  _ and _ block telepaths. Some species had advanced modifications that could allow such abilities, so she had to consider the possibility that he could be a special operative from one of those worlds as well. One that might be interested in Earth? Narrowed it down a lot.

But detecting shapeshifting was rare, and very few races managed two of these abilities, nevermind three.

"Kree?" she asked, after almost a minute, stopping her pacing to look directly at him, with open curiosity. There was recognition in his eyes - he at least knew the word - but, judging by the look on his face, the suggestion that he could be one seemed to horrify him.

All Kree had the kind of closed mind that easily obstructed telepathy. Some Kree from the 'noble' lineages could regenerate or survive a wound like the one that Coulson had suffered; it wasn't a modification, it was genetic. And after the first war with the Skrulls, some of them had been modified to recognise shapeshifters. It was the first race she could think of that fit all three, and they  _ did  _ have that somewhat inconvenient interest in humans as lab-rats; Asgard had clashed with them over the issue a fair few times through history. It could fit.

She leaned over Coulson, and conjured one of her smaller knives from the air, which she used to make a shallow cut on his cheek. Red blood.

"No, not Kree." She stood up straight banishing the knife back into the air from whence it came, and then folding her arms. She glaring down at him. "I'll figure it out eventually. It would be easier for you if you just tell me."

"I'm human," he replied.

She shook her head. "You can see the true nature of a shapeshifter, I can't read your mind, and you can regenerate from what should have been a fatal wound. One, or even two, could be managed by one of the so-called 'Gifted'-" After all, that was part of why the Kree were so interested in experimenting on humans. "-but all three, at once? Humans  _ cannot  _ do that."

He glared at her, meeting her eyes willingly now that he realised she couldn't read him that way. "I don't know how I survived. I was prepared to die that day," he said bitterly. Loki blinked, recognising the defiance in him, in spite of his resistance to her telepathy. It was so familiar to her... she understood it.

She sighed. "This isn't worth my time," she muttered, conjuring a small glass vial and using it to collect the drop of blood on his cheek. Then with a touch of her finger she channeled some telekinetic energy into the wound.

She was no healer, but for a tiny scratch like this she could simply tell the two sides of cut skin to stick together until they healed on their own. It wasn't really medical, just the magical equivalent of superglue, and it would hide the fact he had been injured. It might itch for a day or two, but it wouldn't be visible and that was her goal. Concealment.

She then touched the side of his head. This was different from reading through the eyes. It was very much a violation, considered immoral by almost everyone who understood telepathy. It was the same method she had used to free Bucky from his HYDRA conditioning. She had felt it justified then to unmake something that should never have been, and she considered it justified now to understand and defend herself against this threat. Coulson  _ had _ tried to kill her.

She reached into his mind and carefully searched his memories. He really didn't know. He honestly believed he was human. That seemed so very wrong to her, that a human could see through all her tricks so easily. The only thing she could find that felt at all out of place in his mind was one word...  _ Tahiti _ . It came up when she tried to see his memories after Loki had killed him, and no matter how she looked at it, in his mind, it could not be thought without an obvious code-phrase attached: ' _ It's a magical place _ '. It looked like some kind of brainwashing trick, but if so it was far more sophisticated than she had ever seen before. Even she couldn't break it.

She would need to investigate this. She would start with SHIELD and HYDRA, and then move on to extra-terrestrial sources if she needed to. She would also check the blood sample to be sure he wasn't under an especially well-crafted false identity, and she would make a point of tracking his activities within SHIELD. One way or another, she would unravel this mystery.

Resigned to more research on top of her existing plans, she then removed his memories from the moment he reached for the door to enter this room. She didn't block or conceal these memories. She took them out of his head and destroyed them. There was no way he could ever recover them.

Then a gentle nudge to suggest he sleep, and she released him.

She banished the ropes that had bound him, dispelled all her illusions on the room, and strode over to the door. Grant Ward was waiting outside. "I was never here," she told him curtly.

He nodded. "Yes, Ma'am."

\---

Three weeks later, Loki was still investigating this matter, trying to access some restricted files on Agent Coulson. She had gone back to New York after their meeting, but SHIELD had a building there, and this was her current location. Some things were too classified for Internet access, or she would have done this from the relative safety of the Tower.

"Agent Snow," a familiar voice called from behind her. Damn, that man was good, to sneak up on her like that. She had almost jumped.

Slowly, she looked up at Director Nicholas Fury.

People said SHIELD was run by the World Security Council... but that was just a formality. It was really run by this one man's sheer bloody-minded willpower. Combine that with ruthlessness and intelligence, married to a genuine dedication to protecting humanity, and the result was someone quite formidable. Like Odin, really, though less sentimental. Loki didn't like the man, but she respected this about him. Only a fool would not.

"Yes, Director?" she asked innocently.

"I need a word," Fury said. The phrase suggested a quiet conversation. The tone was nothing less than a command.

Loki really didn't want to, for a number of very good reasons. Their first conversation had been far from cordial. Still, within the structure of SHIELD, he outranked her. She had no reasonable choice but to comply.

"Yes sir." She quickly cleared her search history, and shut down the terminal she had been accessing, before standing and following the man into a nearby office. It wasn't his, but its native inhabitant had the good grace and self-preservation instinct to leave when Fury took over.

Loki watched as Fury disabled the surveillance in the room and, unnoticed to him, she added to the security by casting one of her illusions to keep their conversation private from all but Heimdall.

"You're an interesting individual, Ms Snow," Fury said, sitting down in the chair behind the desk in this office, like he was king of this little castle. Loki took the seat opposite him. "There's very little I can't find if I put my mind to it, especially if it came through SHIELD... but your real name, now that's been troubling me."

"Because you found it, or because you didn't?" she asked, faintly amused yet cautious all the same.

Fury grinned at that question, and it looked more like an angry predator than any sort of positive emotion. "According to all our official paperwork, you didn't exist until the day after the Battle of New York. You just showed up. Before your meeting with Gideon Malick, your ID wasn't even on our systems, but it worked anyway. You've been making it your business to personally meet with half my staff, claiming to be working on behalf of Captain America. Now I find you digging into level ten classified files, and doing a damned good job of it, too. You were about five minutes away from getting through my firewall... which, by the way, is being rebuilt as we speak. What is it you're looking for?"

She glanced to the side for a moment, debating her options. She could probably easily lie her way out of this, but if Coulson wasn't human - if he was a Kree infiltrator, or something else she'd never encountered before - it would be in all their best interests to know it. Besides, she knew from the other timeline that Fury was probably the most trustworthy liar on the planet. As long as your goal was aligned with the protection of the Earth, and didn't involve the harming of civilians, he would work with that.

"Coulson," she said bluntly. "He came back from the dead. I need to understand how."

"You make it sound personal," Fury said, a dubious tone in his voice.

Loki stared at him for a few seconds, and in that moment she  _ knew _ that he knew who she was. She rolled her eyes dramatically, and leaned her head back. "Heimdall, kindly tell Thor that he needs to explain myself to Director Fury."

There was a brief moment of silence, and then Heimdall's voice spoke in her mind, " **_He is on his way._ ** "

Loki shrugged and looked back to Fury. "Five minutes?" she asked him, idly.

"You have a direct line to Asgard?" Fury asked sceptically.

"Anyone who calls out Heimdall's name, addresses him politely, and hasn't personally offended Asgard's royal family, can ask him to relay a message to anyone in Asgard," Loki said with an innocent shrug.

"Good to know," Fury muttered, seemingly sincere.

"This thing with Coulson," she said. "It's difficult to explain. I don't think he's human."

"And what, exactly gives you that idea?" Fury asked.

"I ran into him a few weeks ago," she explained. "He displayed three distinct super-human abilities, which I'd rather not fully detail until Thor gets here. He also tried to kill me on sight. Agent Ward had to restrain him."

"Now why would Agent Coulson want to kill you?" Fury asked, and while it sounded like a real question she could see the light in his eye that told her it was in reality bitterly sarcastic. He didn't even blink as the Bifrost activated outside the window, almost as soon as he'd asked that.

"You're an intelligent man, I'm sure you can figure it out," Loki said bluntly. Honestly, she would have been surprised if he hadn't at least suspected.

Fury's eye narrowed. "I'm mostly surprised you're admitting it," he said, before sighing deeply. "I'm not going to like this explanation, am I?"

They waited in silence for two and a half minutes, before the door opened and Thor entered the office. "What did you do?" he demanded of Loki.

Loki smiled brightly, looking up at him. "I just knew that the delightful Director Fury here would not believe the truth from my mouth. You, on the other hand, are a far worse liar than I."

Thor snorted. "That is a compliment."

Fury frowned. "Well? This explanation?"

"You are certain I should tell him?" Thor asked Loki.

"He already knows who I am," she replied flatly.

"I am to explain the fact you were not yourself, then?" Thor asked. Loki just stared at him as if it were the very pinnacle of stupidity to need to ask. He sighed. "Very well." He turned to Fury. "The Sceptre that Loki used during the invasion was affecting him as well: he was as much a puppet as Barton and Selvig. At some point after the battle, he acquired both his freedom from that control, and a great deal of valuable information. Odin decreed that he was to atone for his misdeeds by using this information for the good of both Midgard and Asgard. There will be an event later this year, which will prove beyond doubt if she is being entirely truthful with this information, but until then - and likely after it, as well, even if she is proved truthful in this - we are observing her carefully. So far she appears true to her word."

Fury frowned. "And these abilities you observed in my agent?"

"Well he's alive, for a start," Loki said. "That's a pretty big one, given the circumstances. He's also immune to low-level telepathy, and identified me on sight, in spite of the fact that this-" she gestured to herself, "-is not an illusion: I am a shapeshifter, and my current form is entirely human."

"Of whom do you speak?" Thor asked.

"Oh, we're done with you," Loki said dismissively, waving a hand in the gesture that meant 'shoo'.

Fury scowled at her. "I'm afraid the agent's identity is classified," he addressed Thor. "We cannot reveal it to the Avengers at this time. I'm annoyed enough that this one found him."

Thor frowned, but nodded in acceptance of this all the same. "Very well, Director." Then to Loki, he added, "I will speak with you tomorrow."

"You can talk  _ at _ me, doesn't mean I'll listen," she said, amused. Thor rolled his eyes, then turned and left.

Fury sighed, now that they were alone together once more. "Agent Coulson was dead for six days. We used a serum derived from Kree blood to resurrect him."

Loki frowned at this, but then nodded slowly. "The Kree in question must have been an elite special agent, with nano-tech in their blood, because that's the only way they can recognise shapeshifters. It also must have been from one of their 'noble' bloodlines, because regular Kree can't regenerate from mortal wounds." She looked right at Fury, now as she added pointedly, "Kree 'nobles' have genetic memories, as well; it is possible this could affect his judgement."

Fury nodded slowly. "I'll take that under advisement."

Loki frowned, thinking for a moment, before deciding to add, "In case he runs into me again, you should probably explain what Thor just told you about me," she said. "And... tell him I didn't  _ want _ him dead?" It was the closest to an apology they were going to get from her.

Fury looked sceptical. "Is that true?"

"I would not have done it, had I seen any alternative," Loki answered bluntly. "I was trying to sabotage my own invasion, while being directly monitored by my commander at the time. As I understand it, the death of a well-liked yet non-essential individual, such as he appeared to be, is an excellent way to snap people out of petty disagreements and into the fight. Everything the Sceptre did to your people was beyond my control, but predictable enough to overcome."

Fury took a deep breath, as if trying to rein in his temper. "Are you seriously telling me... you did the math, and decided that one specific sacrifice would work and was worth it?"

Loki smiled sardonically. "Come now, Director, don't tell me that you've never been in that position. For one thing, you agreed with me."

Fury narrowed his eye. "Care to explain?" he asked, voice soft and dangerous.

Loki’s smile turned to a dark smirk. "Those cards were in his locker, Director. Not on his person."

Fury glared for several long seconds. "Now just how in the  _ hell _ did you know about that?"

"I believe the saying on this world is; 'hindsight is twenty-twenty'."

Fury continued to glare for a moment longer, before shaking his head as if to dismiss that line of questioning as the futile effort it was. "I'll tell him you apologised," he conceded. "But first, tell me, if you're meant to be making it up to us, why are you infiltrating SHIELD?"

Loki smiled wryly. "Ever have one of those awkward secrets where it would be really nice to explain it to the person who absolutely deserves to know, but if you do you'll destroy everything?"

"Yes," he answered flatly. Loki already knew he would have no choice but to admit that - the fact Coulson still lived was one such secret, after all.

"This is one of those."

Fury rolled his eye dramatically. "You know I don't believe that."

"That is fair, but it's not going to change the fact I won't answer," Loki pointed out.

"Well, as long as you're on my payroll, you'll need to start pulling your weight around here," Fury observed. "You will be called to consult on any cases I deem you to have the unique and relevant skills to assist."

"Such as?"

"We've been finding a lot of nasty things in the wake of the Incident. Just a few days ago, one of my best scientists nearly died from a disease carried by one of the Chitauri corpses. If it's alien, and especially if it's Asgardian, I'm going to expect you to help."

Loki nodded slowly. "I can do that."

\---

Bruce Banner was surprised, when 'Regina Snow' knocked on the door of his office in the Tower.

He knew she was absolutely terrified of the Hulk. He also knew she was perfectly justified to be, and if he was honest with himself he was surprised anyone else treated him with  _ less _ fear than she did. Still, she was the odd one out of the group, in that regard, and to see her here now was quite unexpected, to say the least.

Outside their weekly meetings, she had avoided him like the plague... until now.

"Good afternoon, Gina," he said cordially, holding the door open to invite her in. "What can I do for you?"

"You're the expert on gamma radiation," she answered, carefully keeping the greatest distance between them that she could, while still remaining civil about it, as she made her way to the nearby desk and chairs, where she stood on the far side of the desk, with a chair between her and it, placing her hands on the back of the chair. Every detail about her body-language was defensive and uncomfortable... yet she was here anyway. "I need some help for one of my projects."

He had noticed the folder that had been held in her arms, defensively against her chest, when he had opened the door. She had set it down on the table as she passed it. He sat across from her, now, and picked up the folder.

"Those are the readings you, Stark, and SHIELD got from the Tesseract and the Sceptre," she explained. "They both emit similar low-level gamma signatures, and I need to find a way to conceal something like them."

"Conceal the Tesseract?" Bruce asked, with a slight frown of confusion. "Why?"

"Not the Tesseract, but another artefact - a third artefact - which should have a similar signature," she explained. He saw her hand tremble briefly, before she gripped the back of the chair a bit more firmly. "It'll be different: like the Sceptre, but different again from both. They should all be at the same level, but we can't provide the exact numbers because we don't have the artefact at the moment."

"And why do you need to conceal it?" he asked, quite amiably... though his tone evidently did nothing to calm her nerves.

"Actually, I'd like something to conceal it, and something to generate a matching signature. A decoy," she said, before taking a deep breath and beginning to explain. "The Convergence we've been discussing recently: my predictions around it are all associated with an artefact like this being pursued by a hostile being known as Malekith. He wants it, and if he gets it he will be able to do far worse things with it than anyone has managed to make the Tesseract do so far."

"So you're helping Asgard with a bait and switch," Bruce said, smiling. He liked this plan, but he wasn't entirely sure if he could pull off his part in it. He looked back at the notes in the folder, and the wavelengths of the radiation from the Tesseract. He then looked at the readings for the Sceptre. They were surprisingly similar. "It's possible, but I'd need to run some tests to be sure.  _ Blocking _ it should be easy, with the right containment. A false signal, on the other hand..."

She nodded. "I understand. Any help here would be better than what we've got so far."

Bruce frowned. "Which is?"

"Asgard lacks the technological inclination for concealment," she explained. "Weaponry, agriculture, medicine, they've got it made... but hiding things... they're  _ bad _ at it. Truly dreadful. They'd look at one of Earth's ships with retro-reflective stealth technology and think it was done with magic - they still think certain of their enemies use magic for stealth when I'm pretty sure they don't. The only way they could hide this kind of signature is with an illusion spell... and the only one of them up to that task is Loki."

Bruce wasn't sure if he should be amused or unsettled by this. "You've worked with them closely enough to know this?" he asked. "How did they take the news that we've got better technology than them in at least one field?"

"Oh, I haven't told them," she said flatly. "I feel it would be quite rude to wave petty insults like that at a powerful military ally, don't you?"

Bruce chuckled. "Yeah. Okay, I'll see what I can do."

She smiled nervously. "Thank you," she said, before literally running for the door.

Bruce watched her go, before shaking his head, amused. "She's not even  _ trying _ to hide it," he muttered to himself.

\---


End file.
